A collection of articles discussing the philosophy and practice of the spiritual teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana, written by Michael James and forming an extension of his main website, www.happinessofbeing.com.

While revising Happiness and the Art of Being in preparation for its forthcoming publication in print, I have incorporated my translation and explanation of these four verses in chapter 5, 'What is True Knowledge?'. That is, on pages 304 to 305 of the present e-book version there are two paragraphs in which I write that Sri Ramana often said that the words that express the true nature of the absolute reality most accurately are 'I' and 'am', and I have now enlarged upon those two paragraphs as follows:

Though the absolute reality is given many names and descriptions such as God, allah, brahman, the absolute, the eternal, the infinite, the fullness of being, purna or the whole, pure knowledge, sat-chit-ananda or being-consciousness-bliss, tat or 'it', nirvana, the kingdom of God and so on, Sri Ramana often said that the words that express its real nature most perfectly and accurately are 'I' and 'am', or their combined form 'I am'.This is so because what these words 'I' and 'am' express is not only being, but also the essential self-consciousness of being. Therefore, no matter in which language these words are expressed, the first person singular pronoun, 'I', and the equivalent first person singular form of the basic verb to be, 'am', both express the whole truth as accurately as any words possibly can express it.

This is why in most of the major religions of the world the name 'I am' is revered as the first, foremost and ultimate name of God. The supreme sanctity of this divine name 'I am' is expressed and enshrined in the Old Testament (upon which are based the three great religions of west Asian origin, Judaism, Christianity and Islam) in the words spoken by God to Moses, "I AM THAT I AM" (Exodus 3.14), and also in the Vedas (upon which are based the broad family of south Asian religions known as Hinduism) in the mahavakya or great saying "I am brahman" (Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 1.4.10).

The fact that 'I' and 'am' are the original and natural names of the absolute reality or God is stated emphatically by Sri Ramana in verses 712, 713, 714 and 715 of Guru Vachaka Kovai:

When meypporul [the 'real substance', 'true essence' or absolute reality], which is called ullam [the heart], itself [seemingly] comes out and spreads gradually from the heart as consciousness [that is, when it seems to manifest outwardly as innumerable names and forms, which are actually just imaginary distortions of the one true formless and undivided consciousness 'I am', which is that 'real substance' itself], among the thousands of [sacred] names that are [attributed] to [this] ulla-porul [the 'being-essence' or absolute reality], know that when [we] scrutinise [we will discover that] 'I' indeed is the first [the original and foremost].

Since [together] with that 'I', which was previously [in the above verse] said to be the primary name [of the absolute reality or God], as its meypporul-vilakkam [the light which is its real essence] it ['am'] always exists as 'I am' [in the heart of each one of us], that name 'am' also is [the primary name of the absolute reality or God].

Among the many names [attributed to God in all the different religions and languages of this world], which are thousandfold, no name has [such] real beauty [or] is [so] truly appropriate to kadavul [God, who is kadanda-ulavan, 'he who exists transcending'], who abides in [our] heart devoid of thought, like this name ['I' or 'am']. [That is, 'I' or 'am' is the most beautiful and truly appropriate name of God, because he exists in our heart as our naturally thought-free self-conscious being, 'I am'.]

Among all [the names of God] that are known, only the [original, natural and true] name of God, [which is experienced] as 'I [am] I', will thunder [its sole supremacy] to those whose attention is selfward-facing, shining forth as the mauna-para-vak [the supreme word, which is absolute silence], filling the space of [their] heart, in which [their] ego has been annihilated.

When we turn our attention selfwards and thereby experience ourself as we really are, our mind or ego will be annihilated, all duality will disappear, and in the thought-free space of our heart, which is the infinite space of being-consciousness-bliss, only our non-dual self-consciousness 'I am' will remain shining clearly in all its pristine purity. Since there is nothing to disturb the perfect peace of this experience of true self-knowledge, and since it reveals its own absolute reality more clearly than any spoken or written words could ever do, Sri Ramana describes it as the mauna-para-vak, the 'supreme word' or para-vak, which is absolute silence or mauna.

Since this silent, thought-free, peaceful and absolutely clear experience of pure non-dual self-consciousness, 'I am', is the true and natural state of our real self, which is the one absolute reality that we call 'God', Sri Ramana says that the original and most beautifully appropriate name of God is only 'I', 'am', 'I am' or 'I am I'.

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Articles Discussing the Philosophy and Practice of the Spiritual Teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana

Bhagavan Sri Ramana

About This Blog

Welcome to this blog, which is an extension of my main website, Happiness of Being, and which is dedicated to discussing the philosophy and practice of the spiritual teachings of our sadguru, Bhagavan Sri Ramana.

This blog is a growing archive of articles that I have written from time to time containing my translations of verses and other passages from the writings of Sri Ramana and his closest disciples, particularly Sri Muruganar and Sri Sadhu Om, my recordings of some of the explanations that I heard from Sri Sadhu Om, and my own musings about the philosophy, science and art of true self-knowledge as taught by Sri Ramana.

All the articles in this blog are also clearly indexed in two sections further down in this left margin, firstly according to date in reverse chronological order under the heading Article Archive, and secondly in greater detail according to subject arranged alphabetically under the heading Index of Topics.

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The search box at the top left-hand corner of this page will only search for words in the articles, not in the comments, so if you want to search this entire blog, including the comments, you can use the following search box, which will do a Google search and return all the results in a separate tab:

Guidelines for Comments

Though I would prefer to keep this blog as a free and open forum for discussing Bhagavan’s teachings, during recent months the comments on each article have been increasingly dominated by trolls and others making ad hominem attacks rather than engaging in serious and reasonable discussions of his teachings, thereby deterring others who may wish to engage in (or just read) such discussions, so as of today, 1st December 2018, I have reluctantly decided to introduce comment moderation, and hence no comments will be posted until I have had time to read and approve them.

All comments are welcome provided that they are relevant to Bhagavan’s teachings and do not contain personal criticism or abuse. Since we do not all understand his teachings in exactly the same way, any open discussion of them will naturally involve disagreement, but any disagreement should be expressed in a polite, respectful and reasonable manner. By all means criticise ideas that you disagree with, but please explain clearly why you disagree with them and do not allow your criticism to deteriorate into an attack on the supposed character, motive or other qualities of any person who expressed them.

If you disagree with anything I have written, please do not hesitate to say why you disagree with me and, if you so choose, to ask for further clarification. I do not have time to answer all such comments (or most of the emails I receive), but if I think it is a sufficiently important point I will try to find time to answer it (though if I do not answer any point you have raised please do not assume that I consider it to be unimportant, since so many important points are raised that I do not have time to reply to all of them individually).

Since I will not be able to moderate all comments as and when they are submitted, please bear with me until I have time to read and approve whatever you may have submitted, and do not be disappointed if sometimes you have to wait more than a day or so before your comment is posted.

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Until December 2015 I was able to carrying on writing this blog without needing to accept any of the kind offers of financial support that I received from friends and well-wishers, but I eventually reached a point where I seemed to have no option but to accept whatever support may be offered. Writing articles for this blog and replying to comments and emails asking questions about Bhagavan’s teachings is my full-time occupation (and one that I do solely for the love of this subject), so I have no other job and I receive only a small pension and some royalties from my book sales, which amount to far less than I need for rent, food and other essential expenses, so any financial help that any of you may be able to offer would be much appreciated.

However, I would like to emphasise that this blog and whatever else I write about Bhagavan’s teachings is still intended to be an entirely free service, because I believe his teachings are too valuable to be sold and should not be used for financial gain, so any contributions to me should be entirely voluntary and no one should feel any compulsion to contribute. I am sure that most of you have your own financial difficulties and constraints, because having given us the true wealth of his teachings, Bhagavan generally does not bestow material wealth on those of us who aspire to follow the path he has shown us, and because he has made us understand that money and material gain are not the aim or purpose of our life. Therefore please do not try to contribute anything more than you can comfortably afford, and if you are unable to contribute anything, please do not feel bad about it, because ultimately it is up to Bhagavan to decide how (or if) he wants to provide for my material needs, and I am sure he will take care of me in one way or another (whether or not I like the way he chooses).